Since games are played clearly in email in the club, when we are
talking about serious things (such as emailchess), the problem of
security sometimes crops up.

Nowadays it's not impossible that somebody writes an email message in
the name of somebody else, or catches an email during its path and
changes its content. When there is a lot at stake, this danger can not
left unspoken.

Digital signatures solve this problem. Using them ensures that an
incoming message could only be originated by its sender and its content
could not be altered during the transfer.

The most widely used is the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) based public key
digital signature system. This is supported in the club by the chess server also.

All the registered players can turn on and off that the server should
digitally sign all messages it sends to them. The players get the
server's public key (listed bellow) and with it they can verify if the
message they received was really created by the server and its content
is not altered.

Players can also turn on that the server should accept only digitally
signed messages from them. This way they can be sure that nobody can
send commands in their name and nobody can alter the message content
they composed. If the signature is missing or invalid the server
refuses to execute the message and sends back an error report. This
also works with players who play from more email addresses.

Using digital signatures requires specific software to be installed on
the players' machine that supports PGP based digital signing and
verification. Freeware versions also exist out there, for example here:
http://www.pgpi.org

But of course, no one should worry about privacy here, since sending an
email message in somebody else's name or forging one requires high
knowledge level. Those people are threatened in it who deal with really
serious things.

In my opinion emailchess doesn't really belong to these very serious
things. By all means the possibility is given to use digital signatures.

About 800 years after the birth of Christ, chess was well known in the Arabic World. Al-Adli was the greatest known player of that age until 847. He was the closest friend of the caliph, a poet, and a minister-like official.
The game was a bit different than the modern chess we know. The initial setup was the same, as well as the king, the knight and the rook. The queen was the weakest piece because it could move one square and in diagonals only. Bishop moved in diagonals, but only two sqares, and could jump over pieces, didn't attack and didn't defend the nearest four squares. Pawns could move one step only and there was neider castling.

No Viruses Here

By default, club members do not know each other's email addresses, and all email comes from our server, so no virus can spread among our players.